Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

All of us know the importance of housing, but a lot of us take it for granted. If there's one thing I've made a commitment of in my career, it's to make sure that housing is as affordable and available as possible—not easy when the Commonwealth government doesn't control public housing. But in 2018, thanks to a staffer by the name of Caroline Rozario, I put together a proposal for a first home owners deposit assistance scheme and workshopped that policy in August 2018 to the Banking Association, who gave great assistance at the time, because we identified that, in many ways, the deposit can be an insurmountable barrier to home ownership. I'm delighted that in the 2019 campaign launch, the Prime Minister announced that home guarantee scheme, that has now helped 60,000 Australians—who otherwise would be renting—into their homes.

Just for a moment I want you to picture that young children should have the ability to put a hook in the wall to display their framed merit certificate, without having to ask the landlord. They need a place they can call home. And I'm not mentioning for the moment the challenge of not even having roof over your head. But I've made a commitment that in my electorate we can work together to make sure that no-one in my electorate is without a roof over their head at night. It was a sheer horror, two months ago, to see a young mum with four children, quivering in the full, pouring Queensland rain, in a park living in two tents for three nights—while people walked past her, taking photographs of her misfortune and reporting it to police. And there was a real estate agent sitting there, where she'd just been evicted from, saying, 'I'm not leaving her until we find a solution.' That's the front line.

But, for me, it's not just about affordability for young professionals who can't find the deposit, it's about those who need economic security and to be on what we call the 'escalator of the economy'. I'm really keen to see this government, the Morrison government, considering options for rent-to-buy and for longer leases and making sure that those who are disadvantaged—such as women over 60 with no superannuation living alone—are able to find a way to home ownership. There are many models being considered in my electorate.

Lastly, of course, there's the great Minjerribah and the people of Stradbroke Island. We need a situation where young Indigenous families are able to borrow from major lenders for land that is community or Indigenous title, and until now we've not found a way to do it. I'm calling on this government to find a way to make it possible for young Indigenous home builders to put their home on Indigenous land through an Indigenous led bank and through the convenorship of IBA, and Sean Armistead and his team have done an incredible job in this respect. I want young Quandamooka, young Indigenous Australians on North Stradbroke Island, to not only control their destiny and be self-determining but be able to borrow from an Australian lender to build their first home without impediment.

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bowman. In accordance with standing order 193, the time for members' constituency statements has concluded.